Memories of Monteith: Vancouver film and TV community remembers one of its most dedicated members

Canadian actor Cory Monteith looks on while attending a charitable announcement at Project Limelight, a not-for-profit children's theatre program, in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday May 25, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Cory Monteith was every bit as sweet as the character he played on Glee.

“He was Finn,” said Patrick Gallagher, the veteran Vancouver actor who played Finn’s gruff coach Ken Tanaka in Season 1 of Glee. “I don’t ever remember him without that grin on his face.”

But while Finn Hudson was an all-American quarterback turned glee club star from Ohio, Monteith was an all-Canadian kid turned superstar who never forgot his Vancouver roots.

“We’d worked at the same White Spot on Cardero,” says Gallagher. “We both had our hearts broken by the Canucks.”

Monteith was often spotted at Canucks games, most recently during the quarter-final series against the Sharks, where he was seated with his onscreen and off-screen girlfriend, Lea Michele (both were wearing Canucks jerseys).

Born in Calgary in 1982, Cory Monteith’s family moved to Victoria when he was two years old.

He grew up in and around Victoria and attended several schools before dropping out. He was admitted into rehab for alcohol and drug issues when he was 19.

After getting out of rehab, Monteith moved to Vancouver to study acting.

Early roles included bit parts on shows like Stargate: Atlantis, Young Blades, Smallville, Whistler, Flash Gordon and Supernatural.

His first recurring role was on the cult hit Kyle XY, as the love interest of one of the series leads. He was cast as a series regular on Kaya, an MTV series about a singer who becomes an overnight sensation.

With the launch of Glee in 2009, Monteith found himself living Kaya’s imagined scenario. He received the ultimate pop-culture kudos when he was invited to appear on The Simpsons as “Flynn” in 2010.

Monteith’s Vancouver connections ran deep and members of the local film and TV community were clearly shaken by news of his unexpected death on Saturday night.

Monteith’s manager Elena Kirschner was scheduled to speak Monday evening at Monday Night Live, a regular fundraising event for Project Limelight, a Vancouver charity Monteith was involved with that encourages children in the Downtown Eastside to get involved in the arts.

The event was cancelled immediately after the news of Monteith’s death broke. Kirschner was not prepared to speak to the media at press time but issued an email statement saying, “We are in shock and mourning this tragic loss.”

Andrew McIlroy, Monteith’s longtime acting teacher, had nothing but praise for the young actor.

“I am so proud of Cory that his legacy includes a commitment to the humility required to be of service to his craft,” McIlroy said in an email to The Vancouver Sun. “He began as an actor in classes, cleaning the studio to pay for them. He respected all of his auditions, often staying up most of the night to learn his lines after restaurant shifts.

Monteith had publicly spoken about how he was at risk of ending up on the streets when he connected with the veteran Vancouver acting teacher, and that local actors became his family — which sounds a lot like the premise of a Vancouver version of Glee.

“His Glee character was a mirror of his own experience — strength and hope,” McIlroy added. “Cory found his way to the acting room — the place of creation and expression, the place for orphans and rebels — and found a home.”

“He truly was lovely, kind, down to earth, generous and eager,” said Vancouver actor Robert Moloney, who worked with Monteith on Kaya. “The last time we saw each other in L.A. was at the launch of Kaya and he was absolutely thrilled and terrified at the same time. That series never had legs, but it wasn’t too long after that his career shot into the stratosphere with Glee.”

Moloney seemed to speak for every local actor who shared their heartbreak when he added, “The Vancouver acting community was so inspired and thrilled by his success, and now it’s really feeling the loss. He was one of the good ones.”

Fiona Forbes, who interviewed Monteith several times for various incarnations of her Shaw TV talk show (now known as The Rush) said she was shaken by the news because Monteith was always such a delight to deal with. She first met Monteith when he was shooting Kaya. During their interview, a joking exchange about playing the drums — one of Monteith’s passions (he was the drummer for the band Bonnie Dune and in the pre-Glee days for the band Porch Life) — turned into an impromptu drumming lesson.

She says that when Monteith was last on her show with his band Bonnie Dune he was equally down-to-earth, despite his new-found fame.

“He was just the same guy he was when I first met him — such a nice, kind, sweet Vancouver boy.”

When Glee first began to take off, Toronto-based awards show producer Lynn Harvey invited Monteith to participate in the 2009 Gemini Awards. She said he didn’t just agree to a small cameo appearance where he played the drums, he seemed genuinely delighted to have the opportunity to fly to Calgary to be part of the show.

A year later in 2010, when Glee was one of the hottest pop-culture phenoms on the planet, she suggested Monteith as host.

And even though no one thought he’d agree to fly back to Canada to do the show, Monteith not only hosted but when he discovered that Harvey’s young daughters were diehard Gleeks, he invited the family to visit him onset in Los Angeles.

Harvey assumed Monteith was just being sweet, but when he emailed her his thanks for letting him come home to Canada to host the Geminis she realized the invitation might be genuine.

Harvey and her two daughters arrived on set to discover that there were three directors chairs set aside for “Cory’s friends from Canada.”

Whenever he wasn’t shooting a scene, Monteith squired Harvey’s daughters around the set to collect photos and autographs.

“He was such a sweetheart. He was just a genuine down to earth nice guy. And today,” said Harvey choking back tears, “I can’t stop thinking about his mom. I’m so sad for his mom.”

Monteith kept coming home to Canada to work. He was one of the stars of Sisters & Brothers (2012), a movie by Vancouver’s Carl Bessai that featured some of the city’s top talent including Jay Brazeau, Tom Scholte and Gabrielle Rose.

He had recently completed work on Gia Malani’s ensemble drama All the Wrong Reasons (2013), which was shot in Halifax.

“He was always this kid from Vancouver on this great ride, enjoying every second of it,” Gallagher said. “I hope people remember him as Finn and as Cory.”

Canadian actor Cory Monteith looks on while attending a charitable announcement at Project Limelight, a not-for-profit children's theatre program, in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday May 25, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

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